Values-Based Leadership

It is imperative to underscore the urgent need for values-based leadership worldwide – in our governments, academic institutions, and businesses. The lack thereof explains the collapse of global companies such as Enron, Tyco, Lehman Brothers, WorldCom, and Global Crossing due to unethical practices. This clarion call to inject principled decision-making in all forms of life and work is demarcated by inspiring examples of ethical leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa. It places emphasis more on the “means” of attainment rather than on “ends” to excel as ethical leaders. It outlines the characteristics of values-based leaders and justifies the relevance of values-based leadership in today’s world. It concludes with the postulate that creating a better legacy for future generations is predicated upon living one’s values and principles

Watershed development: A solution to water shortages in semi-arid India or part of the problem?

There have been dramatic changes in the hydrology of many of the dry areas of South India in recent years as a result of increased groundwater-based irrigation, watershed development and land use change. Although intensive development of water resources has brought about huge benefits, its very success has thrown up new challenges. Demand and competition for water has increased to the extent that — in some areas — current levels of annual water use are so high that, in all but the wettest years, annual water use approximates towards annual replenishment of surface and ground water resources. In these areas, it is clear that the emphasis should switch from development to the management of water resources to ensure that water is allocated to activities with the highest economic and social value. Although current watershed development programmes bring a range of benefits, they may also change the temporal and spatial pattern of water availability and use. This can result in significant negative trade-offs such as more unreliable domestic water supplies in ‘downstream’ areas, particularly during low rainfall or drought years. As part of the Karnataka Watershed Development Project (KAWAD), a water resource audit assessed the status of water resources in the project watersheds and identified resource management practices that should be promoted by the project. This paper summarises the audit’s findings and recommendations, the main lessons learned and progress to date in implementing recommendations. For comparison, findings and recommendations from a water audit in southern Andhra Pradesh are also summarised.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Book Review – “Leadership and the One Minute Manager”

Today I read a book titled ‘Leadership and the One Minute Manager’ by Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi (Harper Collins Publishers). It took four hours for me to read this book. It has valuable takeaways for all and especially for managers and leaders

Are You A Charismatic Leader?

When you look at leaders like Alexander the Great, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy, Vladimir Lenin and Barrack Obama they all have one common style of leadership – charismatic leadership. They stand out from the pack of leaders because of their extraordinary qualities that are rarely found among leaders. For instance, the solders of Alexander blindly followed him because of his charismatic leadership. The soldiers marched towards victory during Second World War under the charismatic leadership of Winston Churchill. Similarly the Germans were inspired with the vision of Adolf Hitler. The Americans were influenced with the charismatic leadership of John F. Kennedy who gave a clarion call ‘don’t ask what the nation gave you; rather ask yourself what you will give back to your nation’. Although Barrack Obama is relatively young, people trusted and voted him as the President of America because of his charismatic leadership

Glial-Restricted Precursors Are Derived from Multipotent Neuroepithelial Stem Cells

AbstractNeuroepithelial cells in the developing ventricular zone differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. It is not known, however, whether this differentiation occurs in a single step or is a pathway utilizing intermediate more restricted precursor cells. To characterize the generation of glial cells from multipotent stem cells we have cultured neuroepithelial (NEP) cells from E10.5 rat embryos. Cultured NEP cells do not express any glial differentiation markers when grown on fibronectin/laminin under nondifferentiation conditions. NEP cells, however, differentiate into A2B5 immunoreactive cells which can subsequently give rise to oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. Clonal analysis of NEP cells demonstrates that the A2B5 immunoreactive cells arise in clones that contain neurons and astrocytes, indicating that A2B5+cells arise from multipotent NEP precursor cells. A2B5+cells, maintained as undifferentiated cells over multiple passages, can subsequently give rise to both oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. A2B5+cells, however, do not generate neurons. Thus A2B5+cells represent a restricted progenitor cell population that differentiates from a multipotent NEP cell. Based on our results we propose that differentiation of the multipotential NEP cells to terminally differentiated glial cells occurs via intermediate restricted precursors

The local power of the gradient test

The asymptotic expansion of the distribution of the gradient test statistic is derived for a composite hypothesis under a sequence of Pitman alternative hypotheses converging to the null hypothesis at rate $n^{-1/2}$, $n$ being the sample size. Comparisons of the local powers of the gradient, likelihood ratio, Wald and score tests reveal no uniform superiority property. The power performance of all four criteria in one-parameter exponential family is examined.Comment: To appear in the Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, this http://www.ism.ac.jp/editsec/aism-e.htm

Preliminary account on the intensity of fouling in Karwar waters

Biology of fouling in Karwar waters is presented. The composition of fouling communities, their fluctuations in relation to hydrographical factors such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity and the influence of the nature and texture of the substratum on fouling communities are discussed

World Food Council

Meeting: World Food Conference, 5-16 Nov. 1974, Roma, ITIDRC personnel. Article on the role of UN in establishing a World Food Council to coordinate policies concerning food production, nutrition, international trade in food, food aid -includes information on institutional framework

Intensive groundwater exploitation in the Punjab : an evaluation of resource and quality trends

This report summarises initial findings from a case study investigating the response of groundwater resources in Punjab State, India, to irrigated agriculture. Punjab was central to India’s green revolution, and with fertile soils, abundant surface water and groundwater resources, Indian’s farmers soon transformed the State to be the “bread basket” of India. Currently approximately 20% and 11% respectively of India’s wheat and rice production, 10% of cotton production comes from Punjab. The aim of the case study is to examine the response of groundwater in a representative area within Punjab to current pressures from sustained intensive abstraction and pollution, investigate groundwater recharge, and forecast likely future trajectories. The Bist-Doab area was chosen as for the case study: the geology and hydrogeology is typical of the Punjab, situated on the thick and extensive multi-layered alluvial Indo-Gangetic aquifer and has an annual average rainfall of 700 mm. The Doab is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the Punjab and has experienced intense groundwater pumping from shallow aquifers for at least the last four decades. The hydrogeology of this region is best understood as an aquifer system comprising a series of thick high permeability horizons (>10 m thick) divided by thick low permeability horizons with highly variable lateral extent. Locally these are referred to as the first (shallow), second and third etc. (deep) aquifers, although the aquifers are not laterally continuous over long distrances. The following work was undertaken from 2013 to 2014: An analysis of groundwater level monitoring data (1970-2012) from the Indian Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) was carried out. New hydrochemical observations and residence time indicators (CFC and SF6) taken from 19 locations were obtained from paired shallow (100 mbgl) sites across the Bist-Doab under pre and post monsoon conditions. Stable isotope observations were collected and assessed within the context of an ongoing study by NIH investigating spatial and temporal changes in stable isotope chemistry in groundwater and surface water across Bist-Doab. Long-term groundwater monitoring undertaken by the CGWB since the 1970s shows declining shallow pre-monsoon groundwater levels (up to 0.8 m/y in places) across 20-25% of the Bist-Doab. Hydrographs responses imply that for some areas this has led to enhanced recharge during the monsoon. However, for the most affected region of the Bist-Doab, declining post monsoon water levels suggest that abstraction for irrigation is now outstripping the enhanced recharge potential. In the long-term this will lead to a continued decline in shallow groundwater levels pre-monsoon, currently commonly found to be >20 mbgl, with future implications for irrigation. For most sites there is a significant difference between stable isotope values for the paired deep and the shallow groundwater, with deeper sites showing isotopically depleted signatures relative to the shallow samples. This is consistent with different recharge areas and pathways for the paired sites at any given location, with the deeper sites have a greater component of water that was recharged some distance up-gradient (i.e. towards the recharge zone at the foot of the Shiwalik range). This source has a depleted isotope signature compared to the shallow aquifer due to Raleigh distillation processes as monsoon moisture tracks from the Bay of Bengal. Based on the distinct depleted stable isotope values of the Sutlej canal system, there is no evidence of significant component of regional groundwater recharge in either the shallow or deeper aquifer from this source. However, it is likely that this is important at locations in close proximity to the canal network. Results obtained using chlorofluorocarbon (CFC-12) groundwater age tracers show that average shallow groundwater mean residence times (MRTs) are 29 years and 30 years under post-monsoon and pre-monsoon conditions. Deep groundwater (>100 mbgl) had median MRTs of 45 vii years. There is no obvious relationship between deep groundwater MRTs and distance from the recharge zone at the foot of the Shiwalik hills. However, deep groundwater MRTs are much younger than would be expected under natural groundwater flow regimes, where groundwater residence times of the order of ca.102-103 years or more might be expected based on the aquifer properties and the distance from the recharge zone, some 50- 100 km down-gradient in many cases. Areas with fastest long-term declining groundwater levels show evidence of enhanced modern recharge in both shallow and deep groundwater, suggesting that there is a significant component of vertical leakage to deeper aquifers induced by long-term intensive pumping. This corroborates findings from modelling studies undertaken in analogous multi-layered alluvial systems in Gujerat, India (Rushton 1986). There is evidence of nitrate breakthrough from the shallow groundwater to depth and this is likely to be enhanced in the future if the current increases in pumping from the shallow and deep aquifers continue. This has implications for future contamination of deep sources of drinking water from other anthropogenic contaminants such as pesticides. The naturally occurring contaminants arsenic and fluoride were present at concentrations below WHO guideline drinking water limits for all sites and median concentrations were below 2 g/L and 0.4 mg/L respectively. Uranium concentrations in deep groundwater are significantly higher compared to shallow groundwater (p15 g/L, the provisional WHO guideline concentration for drinking water is currently 30 g/L (WHO, 2012). This is a result of water-rock interactions and mineral dissolution and longer residence times. The findings from this case study have broad relevance across a large geographical area as similar groundwater typologies extend within the Indus basin, to the west across Indian Punjab, Rajasthan and Pakisan Punjab as well as in the Ganga basin to the east in the Indian states of Haryana and Delhi. While the broad findings from this study are relevant across a large geographical area, local anthropogenic and geogenic factors, as well as heterogeneity, will of course influence the recharge, hydraulic flow processes and geochemistry, and need to be considered in a consistent way